Filling in shoddy Times reporting with tabloid gold.

The Times today has a front-page report on a wide-reaching corruption probe that ensnares the de Blasio administration, the NYPD, and some super shady businessmen, one of whom may or may not have been running a Ponzi scheme. It’s very confusing and the paper does not do much to bring the story to the reader. There’s a lot of passive voice, a lot of “this is unclear,” a lot of “so-and-so could not be reached for comment,” and a lot of “anonymous said, without elaborating on the substance of the discussions.” These kinds of articles frustrate me: Why report if you’re not gonna give us the goods? The reporters obviously know what is going on but they just can’t say it because of ethics and shit. But I’m a greedy reader. I want details!!!

In times of trouble like these I go to my comfort place: the tabloids. Reading the Post and the Daily News after trying to decipher a turgid Times article is like going to a bar after work. The mood is different. The discussion is freer. People do Jaegermeister shots off their colleagues' heads. Anyway, I read the Post and the Daily News coverage of the de Blasio corruption probe and no surprise, it’s a lot easier to digest, explains clearly what is going on AND there are fun details to boot. This could be for a few reasons: The tabs have better sourcing, the tabs are more fun in general and don’t have a giant stick up their ass, the tabs have better editing. Those are just my guesses.

I’ve annotated the Times piece with supplementary information from the tabloids. I hope it makes more sense now. Read it here.